Crashes at the Tour de France

The French word for crash, chute, reminds one of the old board game Chutes and Ladders, in which the wrong spin sends the unsuspecting player whistling down a “chute,” back to square one. One moment Alberto Contador was a hot favorite for the 2014 podium; in the next he was bleeding profusely on the side of the road, gingerly testing his right leg, which turned out to be fractured. Contador became the third former Tour champion to crash out of this year’s Grand Boucle. The causes are legion – rain-slicked roads, dimwitted motorists, first-week nerves, unleashed dogs, clueless spectators, fatigue-induced carelessness – but the result is often the same. The Tour hurts enough without “kissing the pavement,” as the understatement goes. Crashes are cruelty squared. They mar every bike race, but are magnified in this, the sport’s Super Bowl. Herewith, some of the Tour’s most memorable chutes:

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Crashes at the Tour de France

It’s a measure of Contador’s toughness that, after crashing heavily on Monday, then replacing his destroyed left shoe, he remounted and rode another 20 kilometers with a fractured right tibia, before finally, tearfully pulling the plug.